Especially, why do we read fantasy novels? There are a lot of answers to this question. Probably as many as there are fantasy readers. As People Who Like to Learn and People Who Want to Write, I think it’s worth our time to explore some of the most common answers to this question. For this, I turn to science.

One interesting study published last year, entitled Becoming a Vampire Without Being Bitten (ha.) found that we read to fulfill a psychological need for belonging. The researchers had participants read passages from either Harry Potter or Twilight. Then, measures both subtle and more obvious showed that the people who read about Harry Potter psychologically “became” wizards, and those who read about Twilight psychologically “became” vampires.

I just love that there now exists an assessment called the Twilight/Harry Potter Narrative Collective Assimilation Scale. The example questions given in the ScienceDaily article piqued my interest: “Do you think you might be able to make yourself disappear and reappear somewhere else?” and “How sharp are your teeth?” I want to take it. But alas, I do not have access to the full list of questions. I should hope I would come up wizard.

Anyway, the researchers found that when people felt that they belonged to the groups of wizards or vampires, they had increases in life satisfaction and positive mood. Belonging to these groups, even fictional groups to which they only belonged to as a reader, made them happier.

I buy it. I know I wasn’t the only kid who could sit in her room and read through a stack of fantasy novels instead of socializing with her peers. A sense of belonging from Harry, Ron, and Hermione (or Edmund and Lucy, or Meg and Charles Wallace, or whoever) could certainly have replaced some of that missing peer-group inclusion.

But I also know that I am not the only adult who has real-life friends who can get lost in the lives of fictional characters, either. I may appreciate the feeling of group assimilation I can get when reading a novel, but I think there are other, greater reasons left to explore.